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MANCHESTER UNITED 0 CHELSEA 1

17.53 What a fabulous result for Chelsea. What a dog of a game. Chelsea shaded the match but didn't look like scoring, even after Mata had put the ball in motion which beat Anders Lindegaard. That restores a four point cushion for them over Spurs. United weren't good but it doesn't matter a jot for them. Thanks for your company, I'll talk to you again soon.

90+1 min Nathan Ake on for Mata, Chicarito replaces Valencia for United. We'll have four minutes of added time.

89 min RED CARD FOR RAFAEL! This match left it late, but has decided to get interesting. Luiz has been getting increasingly het up and has a tussle with Rafael on the right-hand touchline. Rafael loses his patience and kicks out at Luiz's shins after the ball had gone out of play. Never wise, especially with Sian Massey standing centimetres away. Luiz goes down as if maimed, gigges, and Rafael is gone.

87 min GOAL!! Man Utd 0 Chelsea 1 (Mata) At last! Ramires drags Vidic out of a promotion with a cautious run forward from just outside the box before backheeling it neatly for Oscar, who finds Mata on the left. His pea-roller beats Lindegaard and creeps just inside the post.

85 min Luiz booked now. He's livid. Jim White is in fine form, despite the horrendous state of this football match:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Jim White - That David Luiz freekick summed up the game: about as accurate as a five year old's aim in the toilet&lt;/noframe&gt;

83 min Luiz has a go from a free kick just shy of the "D". Wide, of course. Time is running out for the day's first Premier League goal. The Championship is clearly the place to be, isn't it?

81 min Not much comes of the corner. Jones is booked for upending Ramires as he attempted to break.

80 min Very close to an own goal! Giggs darts along the touchline on the right, Rafael takes over and steers it centrally towards RVP. Ivanovic has to block it in front of the near post and is slightly fortunate to see it go outside of the post.

78 min The corner leads to another. Superb!

77 min Mata marginally fails to connect with a nice Lampard cross. Rafael has to clear behind for a corner.

76 min Torres is coming on. Moses off. Mask on. Goal quaking.

73 min Ryan Giggs takes a corner, becoming the only player in Premier League history to take a corner in every year since it began. Maybe. It's not like the old days any more, though. Look at Sky Sports' latest attempt to make real life as much like a videogame as possible:

Note the inaccuracy of the Rooney circle, and the utter redundancy of the exercise. Nothing comes of the corner, obviously.

69 min Double change for United. Bellion's nowherer to be seen. Rooney's on for Anderson, Buttner on for Evra.

67 min Mata has a go from a free kick in shooting range. It hits the wall. Can't we bend the usual rules of football slightly and allow both teams to bring on a star from the past to at least give this match some novelty value? I nominate Winston Bogarde and David Bellion.

65 min I wish I could tell you more about this, but there is JUST NOTHING HAPPENING. Even Henry Winter's bored, and he absolutely loves football:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Henry Winter - This is like the Community Shield without the edge. &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mufc" target="_blank"&gt;#mufc&lt;/a&gt; 0 &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=cfc" target="_blank"&gt;#cfc&lt;/a&gt; 0 60min&lt;/noframe&gt;

60 min Chelsea on the ball but doing little with it. Luiz tricks his way past RVP, RVP responds by putting his arm in Luiz's hair. Free kick. In Chelsea's half. Sigh. Some more from Jim White:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Jim White - Very shouty guy commentating for US TV in OT press box. Nearly had a hernia at Chelsea shot. How loud would he go if this were good game...&lt;/noframe&gt;

55 min We've hit staleness again. Both sides capable of decent passing when it doesn't count, but the final ball is palpably poor.

52 min Decent break for United, Valencia finding Jones on the right. He tries to cross to RVP but it comes off more like an optimistic shot towards the far top corner. Over.

51 min Chelsea corner, half-cleared, worked back outside to Luiz on the right who ghosts past Luiz like he's taking on a man who's almost 40. Looks a clear foul on Luiz just shy of the box by Giggs. Not given. Hrmpf.

48 min Valencia with a promising run on the right, getting past Ashley Cole and tapping it inside to Van Persie. He's offside. Here's Jim White being correct:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Jim White - This is the sort of match that makes you hopelessly nostalgic for that patch of damp paint you watched slowly drying on your bedroom wall...&lt;/noframe&gt;

46 min It is on, in a style not dissimilar to that employed by Donkey Kong.

16.47 It's not even close to being a classic. Chelsea have put together a handful of thrilling moves, and hit the post, but lost heart after that. United beginning to wake up but once again look like a team that have spent most of this week having a really good time. And not on the training pitch. See you in 15.

HALF TIME

45 min Powerful hip-twisting header from RVP from a Vidic cross from the left. Well saved by Cech.

44 min Giggs the latest to stab wide from a long ball into the box. United finishing the half stronger

43 min Pass of the match so far, with Giggs playing a fabulous ball between the Chelsea centre backs with RVP connects with, but can only steer wide of the post. Tough chance, great ball.

41 min Cleverley having an encouraging game in the middle for United, sweeping a pleasing pass out to Giggs on the left in a manner that kept momentum going despite him being in a crowded area of the pitch. Little comes of it. Jones gets to the byline on the right soon afterwards, but his low ball into the box is easily dealt with by Cech.

38 min Flat as a Findus crispy pancake at the moment. Which, as you know, isn't entirely flat. But is still pretty flat. It's fair to use this picture as a visual simile for what we are experiencing:

35 min Cleverley forces a decent save out of Cech from a long-range shot.

32 min Ba with a briefly exciting curling shot from close to the area on the left. Always wide. The chanting battle has become more entertaining than the one on the pitch. It's 2-1 to Manchester United, who have pointed out that Chelsea couldn't sell all their tickets for today's game, and aren't champions of Europe anymore. Chelsea have made the point that they are, at least, still in European competition this season.

30 min Danny Baker has thought of a way to spice up this dangerously mild match:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Danny Baker - In order to give Man U v Chelsea more edge they should have agreed that the losing side will have their mascot put to sleep.&lt;/noframe&gt;

28 min Chelsea take a corner short. Oscar has a cross blocked. Then another. Chelsea keep the ball. Lampard shoots from range. Straight at Lindegaard. Come on football, be a bit better.

26 min Feels like Chelsea have been building slowly on the ball for about 200 years. It's actually been about five minutes, but it's not tremendous to watch.

23 min It's been mostly Chelsea thus far. That thought that United might not be particularly up for this? Yes. That. Similar vibe to the first half at Arsenal last week.

19 min Anderson can't reach Jones' cross after top, top, top, top hold-up work from RVP. Well defended by Azpilicueta. Giggs takes control and tees up Cleverley, but Anderson gets in the way of it and deflects it behind for a corner.

17 min Dreadful shot by Moses. Chelsea capitalise on a Phil Jones slip and break seamlessly, working it out to Mata on the right with some faultless one-touch football. He pulls it back first time for the arriving Moses, but he's leaning back and puts it into row N. Exactly.

16 min Giggs tests Cech for the first time, but it's a GCSE in General Studies sort of test, a tame shot straight at the keeper.

11 min Valencia having a poor game thus far. His latest effort is an ill-advised volley from a sweeping Giggs pass. Paul Scholes and Shinji Kagawa react with disappointment and partial shirt removal (in the past):

7 min Mata loooking dangerous for Chelsea. He's given the ball on the right and there are plenty of blue-wearing team-mates in the box for him to aim for. United deal with the cross reasonably enough.

5 min Chelsea enjoying possession. Really enjoying it. A lot of smiles out there. No, not really. This television is disappointingly low-definition. Players mouths are indistinct blurs to me.

3 min Valencia has been on the ball in dangerous positions on the right but made little of it. It's Chelsea with the game's first real chance, Moses and Mata combinging artfully to get the Spaniard on the ball close to the box on the right. He floats it towards Ba, but his header is awkward and over.

1 min Here is a football match. It begins with a kick off, taken by the football team Chelsea.

15.55 Amazing stat time, from our friends at Opta:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: OptaJoe - 16 - Anders Lindegaard has played more PL games without ever drawing one than any other player in the league's history (W13 L3). Decisive.&lt;/noframe&gt;

15.45 Here are the thoughts of Lorcan McKillop on Mourinho:

NERVOUS. (From a Man Utd supporter) Mourinho will know how to make Chelsea a major title contender, and will know how to get the best out of his team (especially Torres). Also wouldn't be surprised to see some Real Madrid players follow him there which would only strengthen an already dangerous looking team for next season.

15.35 This afternoon's retro highlights are brought to you by the year 1997:

15.22 All over at Liverpool. It's ended goalless. You have my undivided attention... After I've snuck out to a popular sandwich vendor to obtain some lunch.

15.15 Here are the teams. I think you can almost detect a glint in the eye of the United XI:

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Henry Winter - SAF in &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mufc" target="_blank"&gt;#mufc&lt;/a&gt; prog: "If we apply ourselves in our normal fashion I see our 20th title as nothing but the start of another decade of success'&lt;/noframe&gt;

&lt;noframe&gt;Twitter: Henry Winter - SAF adds in &lt;a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=mufc" target="_blank"&gt;#mufc&lt;/a&gt; prog: "I certainly don't have any plans at the moment to walk away from what I believe will be something special'&lt;/noframe&gt;

15.00 Afternoon liveblog fans.

Give it up for games that are amazing on paper but almost entirely meaningless in reality!

That's not quite true if you support Chelsea or Tottenham, but you've got to assume that the Sky Sports staff and their giant iPad are all very disappointed that this eye-catching fixture is taking place after the title has been won.

It's the always-thrilling Race For Fourth that takes centre stage today. If Chelsea lose, as you'd probably expect them to because almost everyone does at Old Trafford, their game against Spurs on Wendesday becomes the planet-sized.

Spurs are level with them on points going into this game. This calls for all of Rafa Benítez's motivational powers. Let's hope his players like him more than the fans of the clubs he manages. (I wrote "his fans" at first, before realising that they all support Liverpool).

Much depends on where United's head is at. They were sloppy and uninterested in the first 45 minutes against Arsenal last week but rallied for an impressive second half. With their chance of a record points total gone, can they be bothered to turn it on against Chelsea?

You'd expect so, that Alex Ferguson isn't really one for accepting half-arsedness of any kind.

Team News Sir Alex Ferguson expects to have Paul Scholes back in his squad for the first time since January when Manchester United take on Chelsea on Sunday.

Scholes has been missing with a knee injury and is widely expected to announce his retirement at the end of the season, so Ferguson seems to be preparing him for a farewell appearance.

Danny Welbeck is out but skipper Nemanja Vidic has recovered from a calf strain.

Meanwhile, Ashley Cole is back from his European suspension as Chelsea take on the Premier League champions seeking to strengthen their claim for Champions League football next term.

Eden Hazard came off as a precaution in Thursday night's Europa League semi-final defeat of Basle and could drop to the bench as Rafael Benítez faces a selection balancing act once again, with Wednesday's crucial clash with Tottenham also a consideration.

Only Oriol Romeu is a definite absentee, with striker Demba Ba available again after being cup-tied against the Swiss champions.

Match Notes Sir Alex Ferguson, having already secured Manchester United's 20th domestic title this season, has billed this game as the start of a 'crucial' week for Chelsea's ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League.

But after pushing Arsenal all the way for a draw at the Emirates last Sunday, there is little sign of United letting up.

With Chelsea eliminating United from both domestic cups, the prospect of scuppering Rafael Benítez's hopes of a top four finish will ensure enough motivation for a revenge mission.

Betting: Home 5-4, Away 21-10, Draw 12-5.

Stat of the game: The top two Premier League scorers meet at Old Trafford but United have 79, 11 more than Chelsea.